Pakistan

Last night at 21:00 a new version of the Draft Paris Outcome was released at COP21 in Paris. It’s down to 27 pages and has only 50 pairs of square brackets. That’s the good news. The rest is practically all bad news.

In February 2012, REDD-Monitor wrote about a London-based company called Merlins Wood and its REDD-type projects in Pakistan. Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (SAFI), a local NGO, rejected the agreements the company had made in Pakistan. SAFI has now produced a resolution about Merlins Wood.

On 16 February 2012, REDD-Monitor posted an article about a UK-based company called Merlins Wood. The company has signed two Memoranda of Understanding for two REDD-type projects in Pakistan, one with the Secretary of Forests of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one with the government of Pakistan administered Kashmir.

In May 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan for a REDD-type project. Last week, Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (SAFI) rejected the agreement. This is a strange story, involving the Taliban, an illegal logging mafia, carbon trading, REDD and a UK-based company called Merlins Wood.